Greg Hickok
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gregoryhickok.bsky.social
Greg Hickok
@gregoryhickok.bsky.social
Distinguished Professor, Departments of Cognitive Sciences & Language Science, University of California Irvine. Author, Wired for Words: The Neural Architecture of Language (MIT Press, forthcoming).
Pinned
Coming this fall from @mitpress.bsky.social!
I've yet to see a hardcopy myself but Amazon has some actual photos posted.
November 25, 2025 at 4:47 PM
Reposted by Greg Hickok
In "Wired for Words," cognitive neuroscientist @gregoryhickok.bsky.social provides a critical synthesis of over 150 years of research on the brain’s networks that enable us to communicate through language: mitpress.mit.edu/978026255341...
November 25, 2025 at 2:16 PM
Such a fun time chatting with @smwilson.bsky.social about my book and language science generally! The book is out TODAY!
I'm thrilled to share Episode 35 of the Language Neuroscience Podcast, where I talk with Greg Hickok @gregoryhickok.bsky.social about his new book 'Wired for words: the neural architecture of language'.
langneurosci.org/podcast/ep35
November 25, 2025 at 4:45 PM
Reposted by Greg Hickok
Advances in genomics are giving exciting new perspectives on biology of speech, language & reading. My latest peer-reviewed paper is a tutorial, guiding readers from different backgrounds through the history of the field, current state-of-the-art, & where we’re heading. A taster in this thread.🧪
1/n
Genomic Investigations of Spoken and Written Language Abilities: A Guide to Advances in Approaches, Technologies, and Discovery
Purpose: The aim of this tutorial is to show how the rise of molecular technologies and analytical methods in human genetics yields exciting new ...
pubs.asha.org
November 17, 2025 at 5:54 PM
Why we dance: The surprising link between talking, music, and moving to the beat. My latest essay @psychtoday.bsky.social adapted from my forthcoming @mitpress.bsky.social book, Wired for Words. www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/wire...
Why We Dance
Ever wonder why humans can't resist moving to music? The answer connects dancing to speech in a surprising way—and explains why parrots are our unlikely partners in rhythm.
www.psychologytoday.com
November 17, 2025 at 3:55 PM
If you're at #Sfn2025, stop by the 8am poster session Nov. 16 on Oral Motor and Speech and say hi! We're presenting two posters on the separate circuits for phonetic and prosodic control in speech production.
November 17, 2025 at 3:25 AM
Yesterday I had a great chat with Stephen Wilson on his Language Neuroscience Podcast about my forthcoming book, Wired for Words. Watch for the podcast and book release on November 25! langneurosci.org/podcast/
The Language Neuroscience Podcast
langneurosci.org
November 13, 2025 at 6:14 PM
We still don't fully understand left-brain, right-brain differences.
www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/wire...
We Are Still Under the Spell of Split-Brain Research
For decades, researchers insisted the left brain dominates all aspects of language. But rare cases of "word deafness" and new experiments reveal a hidden symmetry.
www.psychologytoday.com
November 13, 2025 at 6:07 PM
Reposted by Greg Hickok
I rarely come on here or any social media, but wanted to share our latest preprint of large-scale human single neuron recordings during an auditory working memory task: doi.org/10.1101/2025...
I'm very grateful to our patients, my co-authors and the funders. And to anyone who reads it :-) 🧠📈🧵👇(1/5)
Brain-wide single-neuron bases of working memory for sounds in humans
In order to understand the constantly changing acoustic world our brains must maintain elements of auditory scenes in memory. The neural mechanisms for this fundamental process remain unclear. Here, w...
doi.org
November 11, 2025 at 2:51 PM
Language is a "species" of sensorimotor control architecture. A major conclusion regarding the neural architecture of language in my forthcoming book this month, Wired for Words
@mitpress.bsky.social
November 11, 2025 at 11:44 PM
Final adapted post from my forthcoming book
@mitpress.bsky.social Wired for Words: The Neural Architecture of Language. This one focuses on progress over the last 2.5 decades and summarizes some of the main takeaways, IMO. @psychtoday.bsky.social www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/wire...
Wired for Words: Understanding Language and the Brain
After 150 years of mystery, neuroscience has finally cracked the code on how language works in the brain—and the answer is surprisingly elegant.
www.psychologytoday.com
November 9, 2025 at 10:39 PM
Audio-visual synchrony perception in speech, which requires precise temporal alignment, might be sensitive to subclinical neurological disease. Here's some preliminary data from stroke. Work led by my former student Jon Venezia. www.jvascsurg.org/article/S074...
Audiovisual Temporal Processing as a Behavioral Marker in Carotid Atherosclerotic Disease: Preliminary Data and Hypothesis
Changes in auditory and audiovisual (AV) temporal processing occur in early aging and stroke. Asymptomatic carotid atherosclerotic disease (ACAD) can cause chronic vascular insufficiency and silent is...
www.jvascsurg.org
November 5, 2025 at 8:59 PM
A nice piece on my now former grad student Jeremy Yeaton. Very proud of their accomplishments and looking forward to following Jeremy’s future successes!
An interdisciplinary approach | Jeremy Yeaton, UC Irvine language science Ph.D. ’25, demonstrates the value in taking a cross-pollinating approach to understanding speech loss

@ucirvine.bsky.social @uofcalifornia.bsky.social @jeremyyeaton.bsky.social @gregoryhickok.bsky.social
An interdisciplinary approach
www.socsci.uci.edu
November 5, 2025 at 6:19 AM
Beyond Broca: The Two Routes to Speaking. My new
@psychtoday.bsky.social essay excerpted and adapted from Wired for Words: The Neural Architecture of Language, forthcoming this month @mitpress.bsky.social.
www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/wire...
.
Beyond Broca: The Two Routes to Speaking
For 150 years, Broca's area has defined speech production. Now scientists have discovered a second parallel system that controls the melody and rhythm of how we speak and sing.
www.psychologytoday.com
November 4, 2025 at 3:47 PM
Reposted by Greg Hickok
More than two decades have passed since we discovered that rare disruptions of the FOXP2 gene disturb development of proficient speech/language skills. Today we know of multiple FOXP genes that are directly implicated in distinct brain-related conditions with differences in symptoms & severity.🧪 1/n
October 29, 2025 at 5:09 PM
Another excerpt from my book, Wired for Words: The Neural Architecture of Language published by @mitpress.bsky.social
This post is on the ancient sensorimotor origins of language production networks.

www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/wire...
The Hidden Orchestra: How Ancient Systems Underlie Speech
Your brain transforms thoughts into speech using an ancient blueprint: the sensorimotor control system. New research reveals how evolution repurposed movement control for language.
www.psychologytoday.com
October 23, 2025 at 10:02 PM
We are about a month away from the publication release date for my @mitpress.bsky.social book, Wired for Words: The Neural Architecture of Language. Here's a chapter-by-chapter preview.

drive.google.com/file/d/18mc5...
WfW Chapter Summaries.pdf
drive.google.com
October 22, 2025 at 8:21 PM
My attempt to depict the neural architecture of language as motivated in my forthcoming book, Wired for Words. Like colors represent functional connectivity. Main insight: linguistic levels are all organized with a sensorimotor-like architecture. pbs.twimg.com/media/G2cwsM...
October 4, 2025 at 10:32 PM
How your brain conducts the symphony of speech. My latest post on @psychtoday.bsky.social , excerpted and adapted from my forthcoming book, Wired for Words @mitpress.bsky.social

www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/wire...
How Your Brain Conducts the Symphony of Speech
A tiny brain blip during silent speech revealed the shocking truth: Your brain plans words by imagining sounds, not movements. This discovery revolutionized speech science.
www.psychologytoday.com
September 26, 2025 at 9:19 PM
New work on aphasia treatment outcome from Janina Wilmskoetter and the CSTAR team. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Naming practice effects and inconsistencies relate to treatment outcome in people with aphasia
Intra-individual variability in language performance has been proposed as a factor associated with treatment outcomes in chronic aphasia. However, the…
www.sciencedirect.com
September 16, 2025 at 4:59 PM
Indeed, an interesting take on LLMs from my Department of Language Science colleague, Richard Futrell @ucirvine.bsky.social.
Provocative piece and more interesting than most that have been written about this topic. I greatly encourage people to weigh in!

My own perspective is that while there is utility to LMs, the scientific insights are greatly overstated.
📣@futrell.bsky.social and I have a BBS target article with an optimistic take on LLMs + linguistics. Commentary proposals (just need a few hundred words) are OPEN until Oct 8. If we are too optimistic for you (or not optimistic enough!) or you have anything to say: www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
September 15, 2025 at 7:03 PM
Reposted by Greg Hickok
University of South Carolina has *7* tenure-track faculty positions in Neurobiology of Language:

tinyurl.com/USC-Faculty-...

Positions in COMD, Psych, Linguistics, School of Medicine.

@snlmtg.bsky.social #SNL2025, we will have a booth.

w/@rutvikdesai.bsky.social @imb-uofsc.bsky.social
September 9, 2025 at 2:49 PM
Telegrams and Sentence Monsters | Psychology Today

My latest essay on the neurology of syntax excerpted from Wired for Words my forthcoming book published by
@mitpress.bsky.social

www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/wire...
Telegrams and Sentence Monsters
Discover how studying the breakdown of language following a stroke has finally revealed the hidden machinery of one of humanity's most remarkable abilities.
www.psychologytoday.com
September 10, 2025 at 9:26 PM
Reposted by Greg Hickok
VocalMind: A Stereotactic EEG Dataset for Vocalized, Mimed, and Imagined Speech in Tonal Language

www.nature.com/articles/s41...
VocalMind: A Stereotactic EEG Dataset for Vocalized, Mimed, and Imagined Speech in Tonal Language - Scientific Data
Scientific Data - VocalMind: A Stereotactic EEG Dataset for Vocalized, Mimed, and Imagined Speech in Tonal Language
www.nature.com
August 23, 2025 at 2:18 AM